writing

playwrighting

Semi-Finalist, Eugene O'Neill TheatreCenter's 2008 National Playwright's Conference Art and Her Ugly Sisters

Community Arts Assistance Program Grant, City of Chicago, 2008 The Tiny O of Long

Community Arts Assistance Program Grant, City of Chicago, 2007 Man and Variations-- or-- The (redacted)

Core member, Boston's Catbox Cabaret 1992-1998, writing and performing original works on a weekly basis.

"Intelligent lunacy...from the wildly hilarious to the deadly serious." The Boston Globe

"A combination of Charles Dickens and David Lynch." The Improper Bostonian

Writer in Residence

Fernwood Cove Camp for Girls, Harrison, ME; Summer 2000

Theatre Cooperative, Somerville, MA; Winter 2000

"Joe's writing is something like Shakespeare meets Dr. Seuss." Leslie Chapman, Artistic Director, Theatre Coop

The Hyperbolist and What is Love?

The Building Stage, Chicago, March 2009

(video-- Hyperbolist at the Solarium)

The Tiny O of Long {solo-show}

Commissioned by Tom Robinson Studio/Gallery, Chicago.

October 2008.

Man and Variations or The (redacted) {solo-show}

CAAP Grant recipient, City of Chicago, 2007

Commissioned by Tom Robinson Studio/Gallery.

12 characters/ 1 actor/ 10 puppets, with film. 90 minutes.

Performed: September, 2007 run extended through the end of October.

Second run by invitation, June 2008 at Studio Rose, Chicago.

Art and Her Ugly Sisters

20 characters/ 10 actors. 90 minutes. Reading, August 2006

Dollop Coffee Company, Chicago.

Trinkets

In Trinkets, two contrasting styles and stories are interwoven-- One is of an indefatigably optimistic,

but hapless mime. Searching for God, he must dodge falling gore, plaster saints, and an enfilade of razor-sharp roods.

The other is of a bitter, self-hating priest who, through a tender affair with another man, finds faith, love,

and decisive belief in God.

Reading: July 23, 2005 at Zoma Cafe, Madison

bibble iii

23 Characters. 60 minutes.

The megalomaniac Prince Bibble decides to do away with his nonsense-hiccupping father

and conquer the universe of Sevilly all by himself.

Written in residence at The Theatre Coop, Somerville, MA.

Staged reading April 2001 at The Theater Coop.

The Gumphrey, Geraldine, and Fava the Little Bean

34 characters. 90 minutes. For performers ages 8 to 35.

A language-rich fairy tale. Driven mad by a stalwart cowlick, Geraldine, the Princess of Pumpledom, turns her mother

into a chicken and condemns her assistants to the belly of the Gumphrey. When she herself is eaten,

she saves them all with the help of a gentle Fava bean from the Island of Caruda.

Written in residence and performed at Fernwood Cove camp for girls, Harrison, ME, Summer 2000

XXX

3 characters for one actor and puppets. 90 minutes.

A lonely Bub-t-Bub, destined for the scrap heap gets another chance for utility

when he blows his lifes savings on a new human soul.

Performed: April 1999 at the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA.

April 1999 at The Theatre Coop, Somerville, MA.

January 2000 at the Theater Coop, Somerville, MA.

"A bizarrely entertaining and provocative must-see...{XXX} brilliantly defies classification." South End News

"{XXX} is a show you won't be able to wrap your head completely around...and packed with a creativity that is awe inspiring."

Bay Windows

The Package Deal

15 characters. 120 minutes.

Two cretin salesmen leave an accidental trail of death on their search to sell the perfect deal,

or at least to sell enough to get something to eat.

Performed: April 1996 at the Little Flags Theater, Cambridge, MA.

"Hilariously over the top-- a broad, ferocious satire of the American Dream." Bay Windows

"If the original creators of this theater space knew what Joe Mazza was doing, they'd burn it to the ground."

New England Entertainment Digest

Once Upon a Time in the Decline of the West

25 Characters. 165 minutes.

The anti-hero, Cyrus Bellow, moves in a sleazy corporate underbelly of

power and murder to corner the market on the drug Uritan.

Written in collaboration with Robert Ayers, Doug O'Keefe, and David Geissler.

Performed: Fall Season 1993 at The Cantab Lounge, Cambridge, MA.

April 1995 at the Beau Jest Theatre, at The Piano Factory, Boston, MA.

Lesson Three

One character and voice. 10 minutes.

A disembodied voice instructs a lone figure how to keep his soul fit. Inspiration for XXX.

Performed: February 1998 at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Boston, MA.

November 1999 at The Cantab Lounge, Cambridge, MA.

March 2003 at The Lizard Lounge, Cambridge, MA.

"...an effortless piece of performance genius." Editorial Humor

The Ubi Complex

4 characters. 55 minutes.

A mother, father, and their son relive the same excruciatingly mundane experiences several times.

Performed: January 1991 at the New Ehrlich Theater, Boston, MA.

Gazpacho

10 minute monologue.

Rosie, a rangy roue, laments the wasted days of young and careless debauchery.

Performed: April 1996 at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA.

May 1997 at the Beau Jest Theatre at The Piano Factory, Boston.

Jack-X

10 minute monologue with singing and improvisation.

An over-earnest Gen-X-er flips reality the bird and takes off in his beat up Chevy to right the world with poetry.

Performed: in several original weekly installments at The Cantab Lounge, Cambridge

A Foreign Affair

10 minute monologue with some singing and flailing.

A word spouting fanatic warns of aliens taking over the planet by addicting people to candy.

Performed: April 1998 with the spy-jazz band, Seks Bomba at the Lizard Lounge.

Monetary Healing

10 minute monologue with audience participation.

A strident positive-moneymaking-speaker urges the public to forego their reluctance

to believe the unbelievable and join him in a world revolt driven by fiscal arrogance.

Performed: periodically at different venues including The Cantab Lounge.

Poof!

4 Characters. 10 minutes.

Shadow play for Catboxs 3D theatre about two stylish couples on a

ski trip that goes awry when they discover there is an incoming nuclear missile.

Performed: November 1994 at the Cantab Lounge, Cambridge, MA.

Gormand

4 Characters with music and dance. 10 minutes.

Boris, a butter-dependant billionaire recluse, hanging by a diaper on a bungee dies

when his disgruntled personal assistant turns up the speed on Shibdee and Coco, the mechanical

brother and sister dancing act.

Performed: August 1998 at the Back Room at the Burren Pub, Davis Square, Somerville

Nostalgic

3 actors. 20 minutes.

Two traveling salesmen step into a deserted diner and relive a perverted past.

Performed: April 2000 at The Ritalin Readings at The Theater Coop, Somerville.

The Epic Picaresque of the Parlous Peregrinations of Pepper Peduncle

and the Beautiful Princess Penelope Panache

A childrens story using as many "P" words as possible about a kid who develops super powers

after memorizing the dictionary.

Performed: Story Hour for Kids, Sobo Books, South Berwick, ME, Winter 2003.

The Infinite Swallow

A short story ode to Surrealism.

Performed: at Sobo Books, Winter 2003

RADIO ABSURD

Writer/ Presenter of the radio play performed periodically on the Talk America Radio Network

and WMSX Brockton, MA. Summer 1994.